How to book Lazy Bear

Lazy Bear is a Modern American tasting menu restaurant in San Francisco's Mission District, run by founder and executive chef David Barzelay with managing partner Colleen Booth¹. Barzelay, a former lawyer, started it in 2009 as an underground dinner party in his apartment, its name an anagram of his surname, then ran it from a secret warehouse before opening at its current address in 2014¹. It earned a Michelin star in its first eligible year and a second one the year after, and the Michelin Guide lists it with two stars^1,5.

The cooking draws on the wild landscape of the Bay Area and on American nostalgia, using preservation methods alongside classic and modern techniques. Chef de cuisine Genoa Pieron leads the kitchen with Barzelay, and the menu changes often with the seasons³. Dinner is a single tasting menu of many courses lasting about two and a half hours, served Tuesday to Saturday to parties of one to six, and tables are no longer communal². Michelin describes the space as a "swanky, bi-level warehouse"⁵; a 2019 Michelin feature said guests begin on the mezzanine before moving down to the dining room⁶.

Reservations are sold as tickets through Tock, not refundable but transferable, released on the 15th of each month at 10am for the following month; the dinner ticket is $320 per person before drinks, service and tax². The wine list holds more than 2,000 selections with deep holdings of mature California vintages and carries a Wine Spectator Grand Award. Beverage director Thoger Petry runs it, with pairings at $175 and $500⁴.